Charles Babbage

(1791 - 1871)

Charles Babbage was elected to the Royal Society at the age of twenty-four; he also devised the first accurate actuarial tables, invented a kind of speedometer, and helped create England’s first modern postal system. He is credited with conceiving of the first digital computer, although the 25,000-part Analytical Engine was not completed in his lifetime.

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Miscellany

In the 1860s, toward the end of his life, “father of computing” Charles Babbage “never abstained from the publication of his sentiments when he thought that his silence might imply his approbation,” wrote his friend Harry Buxton, “nor did he ever take refuge in silence when he believed it might be interpreted as cowardice.”